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I'm making Italian Wedding Soup, and my recipe calls for oven-baking the meatballs for 7-9 minutes before adding them to the soup and boil/simmer for 5 minutes.

Maybe I made the meatballs a bit too big, but it's taking 2-3x the suggested oven time for them to reach 160 degrees (they were only about 110 after the first 8 minutes).

Could I rely on the boil-in-soup step to fully cook the meatballs instead? Would I have to simmer the soup for more than 5 minutes? Is this a bad idea?

Ed Brannin
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1 Answers1

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It doesn't matter in which modality (banking, simmering) you bring the meatballs up to temperature, only that you do.

Normally, if you are cooking them in the oven first, it is for browning generate additional flavor. Otherwise, you could simply simmer them from the beginning, which is perfectly viable.

SAJ14SAJ
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  • Oven-baking, it's easy to know when it's done with a thermometer. How would I know when they're done in-soup? Could I just count on that happening before the water boils? – Ed Brannin Mar 31 '14 at 00:59
  • They won't take very long to poach, and the consistency should be a pretty good indicator--when they are not...erm... squishy. On the other hand, if you want to be absolutely sure, take out a couple of sample meatballs, and test them with the thermometer. – SAJ14SAJ Mar 31 '14 at 01:08